San Jose State to offer low-cost, for-credit online courses

SAN JOSE -- San Jose State University, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, is also at the heart of a big American education experiment: low-cost online classes offered for credit.

If it works, high school and college students nationwide could by this summer have access to cheap, entry-level or remedial college courses.

Offering for-credit courses at $150 each, a fraction of the cost of other university online courses, is a significant leap forward in the rapidly changing world of online college education.

"I hope this will be such a game-changer," Mo Qayoumi, San Jose State's president and one of the driving forces behind the partnership with Palo Alto-based Udacity, said at a news conference along with Gov. Jerry Brown.

Timothy White, California State University chancellor, and California Gov. Jerry Brown during a press conference to announce that San Jose State University and startup Udacity will develop a pilot program offering online college classes starting this semester.
(Gary Reyes, Mercury News)

Udacity offers free online courses to anyone in the world with an Internet connection -- massive open online courses, or MOOCs. The difference here: granting students college credits.

The courses -- entry level mathematics, elementary statistics and college algebra -- are often stumbling blocks for students seeking degrees. Citing long waiting lists and high failure rates in remedial courses, Brown said at the Tuesday gathering that the state's public higher education systems must find a way to help people succeed and to buoy its aging workforce.

"This could be not the solution but the key part of the solution," Brown said. "We know that because of the billions we're spending on schools, we have the right to better results."

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The pilot project, San Jose State University Plus, will start small, with 100 students in each of the three classes. If it works, the for-credit courses could be available by this summer to any high school or community college student in the nation, said Udacity's CEO Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor who cofounded the startup about a year ago.

The option of online courses, especially for high-demand classes, sounds good to Kateryna Komlyk, a junior animation and illustration major. She hasn't had trouble getting the classes she needs, but, she said, "for some people I know, it's a struggle."

Thrun cautioned that this was, in fact, an experiment. If not enough students complete the courses, Udacity will rethink the concept. "There's a big if here because we are very skeptical ourselves whether this actually works," he said. "We set it up as an experiment of scale, but we don't know if this is a viable path to education."

An outside evaluation will be made under a grant from the National Science Foundation.

San Jose State professors designed the courses using Udacity's online platform and technical expertise. Students at their own pace will watch videos, take interactive quizzes and will have mentors checking in on them and setting up study sessions with other students, said Ellen Junn, San Jose State's provost.

The experience will be more interactive than a typical free online course, Junn said, which is important.

"It's easy to get lost in an online course," she said.

Most of Udacity's funding -- more than $20 million so far, much of it unspent -- comes from venture capital, Thrun said, adding that it was too soon to put a dollar figure on the program's cost.

San Jose State officials said the university has spent $45,000 in stipends for the professors to develop the initiative. The money comes from the university's nonprofit, not tax dollars.

Mohammad Qayoumi, San Jose State University president, signs the agreement concerning the pilot program. Behind him are California Gov. Jerry Brown and California State University Chancellor Timothy White; seated right is Udacity CEO Sebastian Thru. (Gary Reyes)

Meanwhile, the University of California has been developing its own online platform, which it built using a small foundation grant and a $6.9 million line of credit from its Office of the President. In addition to creating systemwide online courses for UC students, particularly in popular "gateway" classes, UC Online Education aimed to make money by selling for-credit courses to non-UC students.

But its prices are much steeper: $2,100 for a semester course or $1,400 for a quarter course, and just five non-UC students have signed up.

Setbacks are OK, Brown said. "First of all, failure is the precursor for success. ... I've even had a few failures myself," he said. "We will learn from what others have done that haven't quite worked out."